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Datalore
' |image= |series= |production=40271-114 |producer(s)= |story=Robert Lewin Maurice Hurley |script=Robert Lewin Gene Roddenberry |director=Rob Bowman |imdbref=tt0708698 |guests=Biff Yeager as Argyle |previous_production=The Big Goodbye |next_production=Angel One |episode=TNG A13 |airdate=16 January 1988 |previous_release=The Big Goodbye |next_release=Angel One |story_date(s)=Stardates 41242.4-41242.5 |previous_story=The Big Goodbye |next_story=Angel One }} =Summary= While on the way to Starbase Armus IX for computer maintenance, the Enterprise arrives at the planet Omicron Theta, the site of a vanished colony where the starship Tripoli originally found the android Data. An away team travels to the surface and finds that what had been farmland is now barren with no trace of life in the soil. The team also finds a lab which they discover is where Dr. Noonien Soong, a formerly prominent but now discredited robotics designer, built Data. The team also find a disassembled android nearly identical to Data and return with it to the ship. As the course to the Starbase is resumed, the crew reassemble and reactivate Data's "brother" in sickbay. He refers to himself as Lore, and explains that Data was built first and he himself is the more perfect model. He feigns naiveté to the crew, but shows signs of being more intelligent than he is letting on. Later, in private, he tells Data that they were actually created in the opposite order, as the colonists became envious of his own perfection. He also explains that a crystalline space entity capable of stripping away all life force from a world was responsible for the colony's demise. Lore then incapacitates Data, revealing that he plans to offer the ship's crew to the entity. When a signal transmission is detected from Data's quarters, Wesley Crusher arrives to investigate. He finds Lore, now impersonating Data, who explains that he had to incapacitate his brother after being attacked. Wesley is doubtful, but pretends to accept the explanation. Soon after, the same crystalline entity that had attacked the colony approaches the ship. Lore, still pretending to be Data, enters the bridge as the object hovers before the Enterprise and explains that he incapacitated his brother by turning him off, causing Doctor Beverly Crusher to be suspicious, since Data had previously treated the existence of such a feature as a closely guarded secret. Lore then explains that he can communicate with the crystalline entity and suggests to Captain Jean-Luc Picard that he should show a demonstration of force by beaming an object toward the entity and then destroying it with the ship's phasers. Lore's attempts to imitate Data are imperfect, though, arousing Picard's suspicion, especially when Lore does not recognize Picard's usual command to "make it so". Although Picard sends a security detachment to tail him, Lore disables Lt. Worf and evades pursuit. Meanwhile, the suspicious Dr. Crusher and her son, Wesley, reactivate the unconscious Data, and the three of them race to the cargo hold to find Lore plotting with the entity to defeat the Enterprise. When Lore discovers them, he threatens Wesley with a phaser and orders Dr. Crusher to leave. Data quickly rushes Lore and a brawl ensues. Data manages to knock Lore onto the transporter platform, and Wesley activates it, beaming Lore into space. With its conspirator no longer aboard, the crystalline entity departs, and the Enterprise resumes their journey to the starbase. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights # Picard sending people to fetch Data on two occassions, instead of paging him via the comm system. Maybe he wanted to make sure Data got the message. # La Forge proclaiming that the soil is almostly compleatly dead, despite Riker earlier stating in his log that the soil was compleatly dead. La Forge's VISOR is probably picking up microscopic signs of life that eluded the ship's sensors, especialy as he is examining it close up. # The colonny possessing a shelter. This may have been a standard feature, built when the colony was started. # The children of the colonists having time to draw pictures of the Crystal entity before it arrived. The pictures may have been based on long range visual scans of the entity, combined with bad dreams experienced by the children. # Riker trusting Wes to check on Data and Lore, but neither he nor Picard bothering to listen to what he has to say. Perhaps they refuse to beleive that Data's personality has changed to the degree Wes says it has. # Enterprise not beaming Lore back on board at the end of the episode. Either 1) they assumed he had been beamed off using a dispersed pattern, 2) he had been taken and/or destroyed by the crystal entity, 3) they were unable to locate him, or 4) they decided he was too dangerous to have onboard, and decided to leave him there! Changed Premesis # Lack of follow up visits to Omicron Theta in the twenty six years since Data was discovered, despite Starfleet's desire to recreate Dr Soong's work. Starfleet may have thought that the lab, and any records and equipment relating to Dr Soong's work, were destroyed during the destruction of the colony. Equipment Oddities # The cargo bay door automatically opening when Dr Crusher runs towards it, when she is being threatened by Lore, but remaining shut until the panel next to it is pressed when the crisis is over. The instance with Dr Crusher may be due to the door activation sensor switching to emergency evacuation mode, possibly due to Lore using a phaser. =Sources= Category:Episodes Category:The Next Generation